Senior guard claims the honor for the second week in a row

TUCSON, Ariz. ?- University of Arizona men’s basketball player Hassan Adams was named U.S. Bank Pacific-10 Conference Player of the Week for Dec. 25-Jan. 1, the league announced Monday.

Adams, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound senior guard from Los Angeles, Calif., earned the player-of-the-week honors for the second consecutive week after leading Arizona to a road sweep of the Washington schools by averaging 28.5 points, 6.6 rebounds and 3.5 steals in the pair of victories.Adams shot 52.2 percent from the floor (24-of-46), including 5-of-7 from three-point range, and added five assists in the 82-minute effort.

He opened the week with 25 points (11-of-22 FGs), eight boards and four assists at Washington State, and followed that up with a career-high 32 points (13-of-24 FGs), five rebounds, four steals and an assist Saturday at No. 7 Washington.Adams tallied 23 of those 32 points in the second half vs. the Huskies as the Wildcats erased a 13-point halftime deficit and win.

On the season, Adams is averaging a conference-leading 20.8 points and 6.7 rebounds per game, while shooting 49.5 percent from the field.It is the second such award for Arizona this season, and the third time in his career that Adams has been recognized by the league office. Incidentally, it is the 66th award all-time for the Wildcats, a Pac-10 best.

Adams is the first Pac-10 player to earn back-to-back player-of-the-week awards since California’s Joe Shipp, Jan. 13-20, 2003.Dating back to the start of the 1995-96 season, Adams is one of only three Pac-10 players to win the award in consecutive weeks.

No. 21 Arizona (9-3, 2-0 Pac-10), will next be in action on Thursday, Jan. 5, when the team hosts No. 17 UCLA.Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. MST and can be seen on Fox Sports Net.